Colorado Passes Law to Make it Harder to Get Carry Permit

According to a report on The Blaze, the state has passed a law which will make it harder for citizens to get a permit to carry a firearm.

Currently Colorado residents can take firearms training online through approved courses for their license. Now, under the new law, residents will have to take classes in person. Classes which can be several times more expensive than their online counterparts and be harder to fit into working schedules due to limited availability.

Numerous states have methods that allow residents to carry without having to take expensive and time consuming training courses, which in most cases only covers the most basic firearms safety rules. Several states do not require permits at all for concealed carry. There has been no supporting evidence that states with strict requirements for carry licenses are any safer than states that do not. What is clear, states with strict requirements do have fewer permit holders by population, and that does potentially create unsafe situations by disarming some law abiding citizens.

In an age where you can buy a car or get a college degree without ever leaving the house, Colorado lawmakers have made one thing impossible to obtain from comfort of the couch: A concealed weapon permit.

A new law requires people to show a firearm instructor in person that they can safely handle a gun before they get a permit, seeking to close what lawmakers say is an Internet-era loophole they didn’t envision 10 years ago. While some will likely praise the move, others will find it restrictive.

“There was no thought of anyone going and sitting in front of a computer and doing the whole course online,” said Democratic Sen. Lois Tochtrop, a sponsor of the new law, and one of the legislators who voted in favor of Colorado’s concealed-carry law in 2003.